Words with special meanings in articles
Grade 7 Reading Worksheet
Circle the best answer.
Read this first
How a River Shapes Its Valley (article)
[1] A river is more than moving water; it is a slow sculptor of land. [2] It starts as a small stream high in the hills and ends at its mouth, the place where it empties into a larger body of water. [3] On flat ground the water slows and swings from side to side, and each wide loop is called a meander. [4] Over many years, the outside of each bend is chewed away while sand and silt settle on the inside.
[5] The bends grow larger and wander across the valley like a line drawn by someone who cannot decide where to go. [6] Sometimes a flood breaks through the narrow neck of a loop, and the river takes the shortcut. [7] The abandoned loop becomes a curved lake, which people call an oxbow lake. [8] Farmers value the rich soil that floods leave behind, but they also build levees, or raised banks, to hold the water back. [9] A river, then, is always changing, and its path today is only one of many it has drawn.
Ari reads sentence 2. Which meaning of mouth does the river article use?
- the wide opening at the entrance of a cave
- a wide loop that swings from side to side
- the place where a river empties into larger water
- the opening in a face used for eating and speaking
Esme reads sentence 4. The author says the outside of each bend is chewed away. What does chewed away add that removed would not?
- sand and silt settling on the inside of the bend
- a slow wearing away, as if by many small bites
- a sudden break, as if by one huge blow
- a careful repair that rebuilds the bank
What Happens Inside a Battery (article)
[1] A flashlight battery looks simple, but a surprising amount of chemistry is working hard inside it. [2] It holds chemicals that release energy when a wire completes the path between its two ends. [3] Each end has a terminal, a metal contact where a wire connects. [4] When a wire links the terminals through a bulb, the reaction pushes tiny particles that carry electric charge through the wire. [5] A charge is a property that makes particles push or pull on each other, and a flow of charge is an electric current that makes the bulb glow.
[6] A battery acts like a storage tank for electrical push. [7] While the tank is full, the push is strong; as the chemicals are used up, the push weakens and the bulb grows dim. [8] Finally the reaction sputters out, and the battery stops working. [9] Some batteries can be recharged, because an outside power source drives the reaction backward and restores the chemicals. [10] Those batteries can be used again and again, which saves money and reduces the amount of material thrown away.
Jun reads sentence 5. Which meaning of charge does the battery article use?
- a metal contact where a wire connects
- an official claim that someone broke a law
- the price asked for a service
- a property that makes particles push or pull on each other
Kira reads sentences 6 and 7. What does the comparison to a storage tank suggest about a battery?
- It holds water that flows through the wires.
- It has two metal terminals where wires connect.
- Its push grows stronger as the chemicals are used up.
- It stores energy that runs low as it is used.
Luz reads sentence 8. The author says the reaction sputters out. What does sputters out add that stops would not?
- it ends suddenly in one loud burst
- it becomes stronger and steadier
- an outside power source can restore the chemicals
- it fades unevenly, in weak starts and stops
The Press That Changed Reading (article)
[1] Before the middle of the fifteenth century, nearly every book in Europe was copied by hand. [2] A scribe might labor for months over a single copy, so books were rare and costly. [3] Around 1450, a German craftsman named Johannes Gutenberg built a printing press that used movable type. [4] Type means small metal blocks, each with one raised letter, that can be arranged into words and used again.
[5] A printer set the blocks in a frame, coated them with ink, and squeezed a sheet of paper against them with a heavy screw. [6] Once a page was printed, the blocks could be taken apart and arranged into the next one. [7] Soon a flood of books poured out of workshops across Europe. [8] Prices fell, schools could afford more texts, and ideas traveled farther than before. [9] Some officials worried about what ordinary people might now read, because ideas could spread faster than any ruler could control. [10] Within fifty years, printers in hundreds of towns were producing millions of books.
Milo reads sentence 4. Which meaning of type does the printing article use?
- to write words by pressing keys
- small metal blocks with raised letters
- a frame that holds the blocks in place
- a kind or sort of thing
Pia reads sentence 2. The author says a scribe might labor for months. What does labor add that work would not?
- the job took a short time
- the effort was long and hard
- books were rare and costly
- the scribe enjoyed the task as a game
Glaciers on the Move (article)
[1] A glacier is a huge mass of ice that moves slowly across land. [2] It begins where more snow falls in winter than melts in summer. [3] Over many years the snow piles up, and the weight on the lower layers squeezes the flakes into solid ice. [4] Then gravity takes over, and the ice creeps downhill, a river of ice that in most places moves less than a meter a day.
[5] As the glacier moves, deep cracks called crevasses open where the ice bends over rough ground. [6] Where a glacier reaches the sea, huge chunks of ice crash into the water, a process called calving. [7] In recent decades, many glaciers have been in retreat. [8] That means the front edge of the ice melts back faster than new ice arrives from above. [9] The glacier does not roll backward; it simply ends farther uphill each year than it did before.
Ren reads sentences 7 to 9. Which meaning of retreat does the glacier article use?
- the front edge of the ice melts back uphill
- huge chunks of ice crash into the sea
- a quiet place to rest and relax
- to move away from trouble
Tala reads sentence 4. What does the phrase a river of ice suggest about a glacier?
- A stream of liquid water runs through the ice.
- Ice flows slowly downhill like water in a channel.
- The ice stays still in one place.
- Snow piles up where more falls than melts.
Zee reads sentence 6. The author says huge chunks of ice crash into the water. What does crash add that fall would not?
- a gentle landing on the water
- a slow, quiet slide
- this process is called calving
- a loud, heavy, sudden impact